To Sell or Not to Sell: The Ethics of ius pecuniae

Abstract

This chapter explores how different conceptions of citizenship influence ethical stances towards the sale of citizenship, and looks at the arguments rooted in the liberal, communitarian and republican citizenship traditions. The chapter identifies strands in the liberal citizenship tradition that provides normative arguments supportive of the sale of citizenship, and those emanating from the republican and the communitarian tradition that are less permissive of it. Ideas about membership based on these different conceptions of citizenship are then used to illustrate how the arguments for and against investor citizenship are developed.